Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:06:45.830Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

EPILOGUE: From Introspections, Brain Scans, and Memory Tests to the Role of Social Context: Advancing Research on Interaction and Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

Alison Mackey
Alison Mackey
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The goal of this epilogue is to use the methodological contributions of the studies presented in this special issue as a starting point for suggestions about methodology in conducting future interaction research. As is the case in most developing fields, interaction research develops methods internally as it continually borrows and extends techniques used in other disciplines and revitalizes older techniques by adding new or different angles unique to interaction. Interaction researchers have also begun to forge relationships in new areas (e.g., by working with psychologists and developing working memory [WM] tests). This sort of cooperation is an important step in the drive to uncover more information about the relationship between interaction and learning. As several contributors to this special issue have noted, the most recent advances in methodology have been driven by questions about how interaction works (as opposed to whether it works). In turn, some of the methodological innovations discussed here will also ultimately allow new questions to be asked. Indeed, the relationship between questions (i.e., suggestions about what needs to be investigated next) and methods (i.e., plans for how to carry out such investigations) is particularly close in interaction research, which is a relatively new but vibrant and quickly developing area. Consequently, this epilogue considers both methods and questions conjointly, beginning with a discussion of methodological issues in the most recent theorizing about the interaction hypothesis.I am grateful to Helen Carpenter, Akiko Fujii, Susan M. Gass, Mika Hama, Jennifer Leeman, Kim McDonough, and Jenefer Philp for various kinds of help, including discussions of ideas and feedback, in relation to an earlier version of this paper, and to Amanda Edmonds and the other SSLA editorial staff members for their outstanding work and assistance with this Epilogue and the entire special issue. Any errors are, of course, my own.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , June 2006 , pp. 369 - 379
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417–423.Google Scholar
Bigelow, M., delMas, R., Hansen, K., & Tarone, E., (in press). Literacy and the processing of oral recasts in SLA. TESOL Quarterly.
Block, D. (2003). The social turn in second language acquisition. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Bunting, M. F., Conway, A. R. A., & Heitz, R. P. (2004). Individual differences in the fan effect and working memory capacity. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 604–622.Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z. (2002). The motivational basis of language learning tasks. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Individual differences and instructed language learning (pp. 137–158). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Egi, T. (2004). Verbal reports, noticing, and SLA research. Language Awareness, 13, 243–264.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2005). At the interface: Dynamic interactions of explicit and implicit language knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 305–352.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C., & Schmidt, R. (1997). Morphology and longer distance dependencies: Laboratory research illuminating the A in SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 145–171.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C., & Sinclair, S. (1996). Working memory in the acquisition of syntax: Putting language in good order. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A, 234–250.Google Scholar
Ellis, R., & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analyzing learner language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Erlam, R. (2005). Language aptitude and its relationship to instructional effectiveness in second language acquisition. Language Teaching Research, 9, 147–171.Google Scholar
Ferris, D., & Hedgcock, J. (2005). Teaching ESL composition: Purpose, process, and practice ( 2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Frequency effects in language processing: A review with commentaries [Special issue]. (2002). Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24.
Gass, S. M. (2003). Input and interaction. In C. J. Doughty & M. H. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 224–255). Oxford: Blackwell.
Gass, S. M., & Mackey, A. (2000). Stimulated recall methodology in second language research. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gass, S. M., & Mackey, A., (in press). Input, interaction and output in SLA. In B. Van Patten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in SLA. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Harrington, M., & Sawyer, M. (1992). L2 working memory capacity and L2 reading skill. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 25–38.Google Scholar
Juffs, A. (2003, October). Working memory: Understanding current issues in mainstream psychology. Paper presented at the Second Language Research Forum, University of Arizona, Tucson.
Kowal, M., & Swain, M. (1994). Using collaborative language production tasks to promote students' language awareness. Language Awareness, 3, 73–93.Google Scholar
Leow, R. P., & Morgan-Short, K. (2004). To think aloud or not to think aloud: The issue of reactivity in SLA research methodology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26, 35–57.Google Scholar
Lightbown, P. M. (1998). The importance of timing in focus on form. In C. J. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 177–196). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Loewen, S., & Philp, J., (in press). Recasts in the adult L2 classroom: Characteristics, explicitness, and effectiveness. Modern Language Journal.
Long, M. H. (1997). Construct validity in SLA research: A response to Firth and Wagner. Modern Language Journal, 81, 318–23.Google Scholar
Long, M. H., (in press). Recasts: The story so far. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Problems in SLA. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Mackey, A., (in press). Input, interaction and corrective feedback in L2 learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mackey, A., & Philp, J. (1998). Conversational interaction and second language development: Recasts, responses, and red herrings? Modern Language Journal, 82, 338–356.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (Eds.). (1999). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Oliver, R., & Mackey, A. (2003). Interactional context and feedback in child ESL classrooms. Modern Language Journal, 87, 519–543.Google Scholar
Pica, T. (1994). Research on negotiation: What does it reveal about second-language learning conditions, processes, and outcomes? Language Learning, 44, 493–527.Google Scholar
Pienemann, M. (1998). Language processing and second language development: Processability theory. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Robinson, P. (2001). Individual differences, cognitive abilities, aptitude complexes and learning conditions in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 17, 368–392.Google Scholar
Robinson, P. (2003). Attention and memory. In C. J. Doughty & M. H. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 631–678). Oxford: Blackwell.
Skehan, P. (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Swain, M. (2005). The output hypothesis: Theory and research. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 471–484). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Swain, M., (in press). Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced second language proficiency. In H. Byrnes (Ed.), Advanced language learning: The contributions of Halliday and Vygotsky. London: Continuum.
Tokowicz, N., & MacWhinney, B. (2005). Implicit and explicit measures of sensitivity to violations in second language grammar: An event-related potential investigation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 173–204.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. (2005). Theories of second language acquisition: Three sides, three angles, three points. Second Language Research, 21, 393–414.Google Scholar
Ullman, M. (2005). A cognitive neuroscience perspective on second language acquisition: The declarative/procedural model. In C. Sanz (Ed.), Mind and context in adult second language acquisition (pp. 141–178). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Walter, C. (2004). Transfer of reading comprehension skills to L2 is linked to mental representations of text and to L2 working memory. Applied Linguistics, 25, 315–339.Google Scholar